They’re having transmission problems, too

WASHINGTON DC – Now I don’t feel so bad. With the start of the summer season here, a sharp rise in electricity demand is expected. That should be no problem, given that, as The New York Times reports, power generation capacity has increased sharply since the late 1990s. In other words, they have plenty of reserve generation capacity. You may even call it a glut, like the one we now have.

That should give them comfort but it doesn’t. Their problem is, "the aging transmission grid prevents much of that power from flowing easily into areas where it is most needed during summer consumption spikes." Now, doesn’t that sound ominously familiar?

It is something like our situation in the Luzon Grid where a large number of power plants including the over two thousand megawatts of natural gas fired plants of First Gas and the Koreans are underutilized precisely because of grid transmission capacity problems. That’s why power outages and higher power costs happen when such things should have been things of the past.

Relief is not about to happen any time soon. Modernization of our transmission grid has now been relegated to the back burner, until such time as the new National Transmission Co. is privatized because we don’t have the large amounts of money needed to do that. But it can’t be privatized until Congress gives it a franchise. And the Senate won’t grant the franchise until it is privatized first. They want to deal with private company, not with Transco. But of course!

They have a more philosophical question here in the American East Coast that hobbles any attempt to modernize and put in more capacity in the transmission grid. Transmission projects, The New York Times reports, attract bitter opposition from people in the path of the lines. This is something similar to the problem faced by Napocor with residents of the ritzy Dasmariñas Village in Makati over a transmission project that would have allowed more power to flow in from power plants located south of Manila.

According to the Times, plans for new transmission lines invariably lead to debates on whether it is better to just give more support (subsidy?) to small power generation projects located closer to place of usage. There are also those who want to encourage more conservation and alternative energy sources to obviate the need for large scale power plants located far from population centers.

While power company executives concede that alternative approaches merit consideration, they also point out the urgency of the present problem. Serious congestion in the existing power grid system limits the ability of the power companies to import cheap power from new and underused power plants further north in Maine and even Canada. Having smaller power plants closer to the city is also easier said than done, given higher real estate costs and environmental considerations.

Nevertheless, entrepreneurs have started to explore the future of these smaller alternative power supply systems located closer to places of use. Ideally, the Times reports, these various approaches often grouped under the name of distributed generation – could reduce the need for drawing power from distant sources. But most of the technologies involved, including solar and various types of fuel cell systems have yet to match the economic costs of large scale power production from coal, hydro and nuclear. Reliability of these systems must also be proven.

And so the debates go on. And as is the case also back home, the regulatory authorities and the political leadership here are afraid to break the impasse in the light of a strong green lobby against the traditional power generation and distribution system. Talk of globalized political cowardice!

And so they are testing the fates, so to speak, with a lot of fingers crossed that somehow, their old transmission grid system will be able to hold out to what is expected to be a long and blisteringly hot summer ahead. If it falters and the grid that covers such major cities from Boston to New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC is thrown into a blackout, the irony would be that it happened even as they have more than enough generating capacity that could have been tapped.

It feels so much like home. Sigh!

Military heroes

Old soldiers never die, it is said, but last week, two good ones just did. One is of course, Gen. Rafael Ileto. My publisher wrote a long and fitting tribute to him and I don’t think I have anything more to add except to express my personal condolences to his family.

Also last week, Robert del Pilar, the only member of our UP Prep Class of 66 who entered the Philippine Military Academy and actually served in the AFP sent me an e-mail about another good general who passed away. Here is his e-mail.

A day ago, Maj. Gen. Vicente E. Evidente (Ret.) passed away. He is one officer who served our country without glitter but touched a lot of hearts – people who needed assistance without strings attached. His family is now feeling the result of this Gentleman’s integrity and needs all the assistance of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and his friends that a retiree deserves.

The problem of being a retiree like him is a vivid example of a system unresponsive to the needs of those left behind. Can you give him a line or two of condolences and also wake up those who can help his family.

I don’t personally know the general but I take Bobby’s word for it. Bobby is one military officer who never lost his youthful idealism, a quality that forced him to take an early retirement and resettle in the suburbs of San Diego, California. That should be an interesting story he may want to tell us one day.

Farmer’s wife

This one’s from Dr. Ernie E.

A farmer is giving his wife last-minute instructions before heading to town to do some business. "That fellow from Sematol will be along this afternoon to inseminate one of the cows. I’ve hung a nail by the right stall so you would know which one I want him to impregnate." Satisfied that even his mentally challenged wife could understand the instructions, the farmer left for town.

That afternoon, the "inseminator" arrives, and the wife dutifully takes him out to the barn and directly to the stall with the nail. "There’s the nail so this is the cow right here," she tells him.

"What’s the nail for?" the guy asks.

Replies the wife, "I guess it’s where you hang your pants."

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]